Millheim Journal. [volume] (Millheim, Pa.) 1876-1984, 1887-07-28

| lii chair before the fire.
Dodo looked distressed, and NIL the lovely
color suddenly paled from her pretty
cheeks
ooh aunty, how does IL depend on me 2"
she faltered, although she guessed what the
allusion meant.
al think you will never quite forget the
hours which we have passed together here, =
lac said, with seemingly regretfnl glance
around the room, and at motherly Mrs.
Merron, asleep oyrr her knitting before the
iiIe. '"rhey have been hours 90 be renen-
bered by both of us.
He had bent over her until his dark mus
tache brushed her forehead he had clasped
both her hands. There was the tenderest
significance In his musical tones the fas-
cination of what seemed tenderest love
glowed in the brilliant eyes.
Dodo trembled. She had made him her
hero undoubtedly but in that instant
her whole being recoiled from him. Why,
she could not have explained she only
knew she was aroused somehow 10 n true
knowledge of her own feelings. lie had
charmed her fancies for the moment, per-
haps, but no love-sweet and supreme
would ever thrill her soul for him.
~ ought Ia have gone before, he contin-
ued, uneasily, as If lac were dreading some
reproach from Dodo herself "But 1 was
hardly presentable with pulled and pur-
pie bruise decorating goodly half of my
countenance. And my destination is near
er than you guessed, Dodo my dear little
girl, you and / are to meet again, and
often"
Dodo noticed the uneasiness of his tones,
his entire, changed expression, and with n
sudden quick instinct she grasped the
truth.
"You are-are-Mr. Lestrangc ?' she
grasped, with a strange look in her big
brown eyes. "You are my cousin Greta's
promised husband
lie bowed in "A manner 80 conscious and
embarrassed that all Dodo's honest little
soml arose To hot indignation against him.
lie was no longer hero in her sight. He
was IN insinccre, shallow triher, who had
amused himself with her simple bushes at
his practiced fiattery.
Such sublime audacitv, such consummate
falsity, stunned her. With look of with
ering scorn she turned and left him In utter
disgust.
81 pity Greta, cross and selfish rs she is,
Dodo thought, as she went slowly up the
steps of the old yellow stone mansion.
AS she entered the pleasant family sit
ting-room Greta pressed rudely and sullen-
ly past her and tripped up the stairs.
Mrs. Gray was weeping almost convul-
sively in her invalid chair before the fire.
"What has happened, aunty ?" the girl
qneried, anxiously and affectionately.
Dotio was sincerely attached To her inva-
lid aunt, whose trials had, indeed, been
many and grievous.
''It IL that mortgage" was the pitteous
answer. "There in 20 be an immediate fore
closure We shall be absolutely homeless
there won't be 500 left after the sale.
don't care for myself, nor 40 much on
Greta's account-she can earn her own liv-
ing if she chooses but there are the poor
children-Tommy and Willy What will
become of them 80
Dodo stopped and kissed her aunt in ger
tie sympathy, but she was silent
"Dodo, can't ask you 10 do anything
that might make you unhappy" the weep
ing woman resumed, "and il seems cruel to
remind You that have been like a mother
to you. But, my dear, if you only would
consider everything and then decide to do
what would like. And David is waiting
for you, dear. lie is in the parlor now"
Dodo's pretty face flushed with sudden
She had not considered everything as she
might have done-that was certain.
Mrs. Grey had indeed been like mother
10 her. In her orphaned and penniless
childhood she had been taken into the fam
lily as one of their. own. She had shared and
shared alike with them in everything no
hint of her dependence had ever been per-
mitted TO pain her. Even the selfish and
sometimes disagreeable Greta had treated
her entirely as n sister. And when the dear
one who had been to her like an indulgent
father.
The flush had vanished from her pretty
cheeks her face was pale and her large
brown eyes very serious as she opened the
parlor door and advanced rather timidly to-
ward the gentleman waiting for her.
The serious eyes dropped and her voice
choked as she glanced at the earnest face
and fine Saxon looking figure of her patient,
true lover.
How could she have tried to shut her fool
ish heart against the love of one all noble
and loyal ever she wondered
But she meant TO be frank with him she
would confess all her folly-she would even
tell him about that dreadful mortgage, and
then, if he loved her no longer she could
not blame him.
He misinterpreted the agitation of the
pale face, and checked the confession before
IL was begun.
81 am not here to hurry your answer, Do
do r. he said very gently. "You shall have
your own time about that, my darling.
have come on quite different errand. l
have just learned that your aunt has been
threatened with some financial trouble, and
/ have ventured TO adjust the matter by
buying the mortgage. know how hard 1t
would be for her TO give up her old home,
and how hard it would be for you to see her
in such distress when she has always been
such a good mother to you. And l just
took the affair in my own hands and her
trouble is ended. Why, Dodo, my little
love, what is this ?" he finished in surprise.
For Dodo had suddenly flung herself face
downward on the sofa, and was crying as If
her heart would break.
"And it was the mortgage which had
come between you and me, David" she
cried, with q nervous laugh mingling with